110 AH battery useless after 12 months only

I bought a 110 AH PowerLine XV31MF battery last July and initially I could work two full days  without charging it . The battery was charged every evening using a smart battery charger however these days it doesn't last more then 4 hours to get it flat.. 

I was thinking to add some pure water in the cells but is a sealed battery .. anyway -  shall I get another one or it can be reconditioned somehow ? 

thanks very much

What charger are you using? Sounds like the battery has a faulty cell if the capacity is down so much and if it's sealed you'll need to get a replacement. Personally I can't fault Halfords batteries, well actually I stand corrected as I've had a faulty one but they replaced it under warranty with no question. I use CTEK chargers which quite often rescue car batteries that have been condemned by roadside breakdown testing. If I were you I would charge the battery on the bench uninterrupted to see if it reaches full charge (14v) then leave it a few hours (or overnight) to see if it loses any charge - if it does its dead!


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AGlassAct said:

What charger are you using? Sounds like the battery has a faulty cell if the capacity is down so much and if it's sealed you'll need to get a replacement. Personally I can't fault Halfords batteries, well actually I stand corrected as I've had a faulty one but they replaced it under warranty with no question. I use CTEK chargers which quite often rescue car batteries that have been condemned by roadside breakdown testing. If I were you I would charge the battery on the bench uninterrupted to see if it reaches full charge (14v) then leave it a few hours (or overnight) to see if it loses any charge - if it does its dead!


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I think 13.4 V ? is the maximum the battery had ?!  and I also have a CTEK 5.0  charger which is on overnight every night .. the charger might have boiled the battery ? even if is automatic switch off 

will probably get a new battery - hopefully will last another year . How many times (cycles) the battery can be charged - somebody mentioned about 500 ?!  if that's true then mine had about 300 cycles anyway 

If you have the MXS 5.0 the spec sheet says it charges at 14.4v ,14.7v and 15.8v. I suggested 14v as the medium for which - in my experience - a fully charged battery sits at +/- 0.5v. My battery is around 3 months old and fully charged hovers around 14.3v. I wouldn't think you've boiled the battery, if you have it would literally be red hot to touch or the casing would 'swell'. I was always taught a battery only has 'so many charges' in it so theoretically charging the battery when it doesn't necessarily need it could shorten the life of it........ but a year out of a 'budget?' Battery isn't that unheard of.


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Hi

   I got a charger from halfords £85 5 year garuntee. It brings the dead batterys back to life. No xxxx honest i had the same as you tried most chargers. Had a battery on its way out used the charger on repair mode hey presto got a full 4 days out of it with out a charge.

im gonna fully charge it on sat  then press the RECON  button - may it will perform better otherwise probably getting a new one is a good idea : ) 

thanks guys 

Iurie said:

I think 13.4 V ? is the maximum the battery had ?!  and I also have a CTEK 5.0  charger which is on overnight every night .. the charger might have boiled the battery ? even if is automatic switch off 

will probably get a new battery - hopefully will last another year . How many times (cycles) the battery can be charged - somebody mentioned about 500 ?!  if that's true then mine had about 300 cycles anyway 

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Unfortunately cycles aren't letting the battery go from fully charged to flat. The manufacturers would like you to believe that but some of the cheaper makes might specify in the small print that a cycle is full to 80% charged. That makes the battery look better on paper (in the sales literature.)

So if your battery is one of those then discharging it to flat will shorten its life span drastically. I don't know who makes Powerline batteries but it has exactly the same model number as a Numax battery has. We have had Numax batteries lasting between 3 and 6 years. But Numax told me that they won't action a warranty on a battery used for wfp because we abuse batteries by the very nature of what we demand from them. They said that the average age of a wfp battery is less than a year.  I don't know if that some smart fellow sprouting his mouth off or not, but as we do hear of so many issues with wfp leisure batteries, there might be an element of truth in what he said.

If you let the battery settle for 4 hours and then test the voltage across it, the reading will tell you the state of charge. If it 12.7v or higher ie 12.9v then the battery is fully charged. If the battery then only lasts a short time in the field then the battery has lost it capacity, usually due to sulphation.

Putting it on a higher charge voltage may help it recover a bit, but won't cure it. Time to replace it.

AGlassAct said:

What charger are you using? Sounds like the battery has a faulty cell if the capacity is down so much and if it's sealed you'll need to get a replacement. Personally I can't fault Halfords batteries, well actually I stand corrected as I've had a faulty one but they replaced it under warranty with no question. I use CTEK chargers which quite often rescue car batteries that have been condemned by roadside breakdown testing. If I were you I would charge the battery on the bench uninterrupted to see if it reaches full charge (14v) then leave it a few hours (or overnight) to see if it loses any charge - if it does its dead!


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I think this is important. ATM Halfords seem to be standing by the warranty on their batteries. They are more expensive but you are paying for piece of mind.

If you buy a battery online, how do you get your guarantee actioned. Maybe you have to pay to send it back and they just sit on it costing you time and money. How do you prove that the battery is faulty?

Once the battery is out of your sight you loose control, so in effect, that battery didn't have a warranty at all; the warranty wasn't worth the paper its written on.

14v is the charging voltage; my charger it's 13.9v.  So when charging the battery it will read 13.9v in my case. When I switch the charger off the battery voltage slowly stabilises across the plates and the charge will settle down to 12.8v in my case using my voltage/amperage gauge which won't be 100% accurate.

.

I have to admit - that I didn't look after this battery at all .. several times the voltage dropped to 7.1 V while working (I thought the pump controller will switch the pump off?! but it didn't )   also used the battery to power the second pump when I had a guy working with me so - overall 12 month is god enough for a 50 quid battery : )   

Iurie said:

I have to admit - that I didn't look after this battery at all .. several times the voltage dropped to 7.1 V while working (I thought the pump controller will switch the pump off?! but it didn't )   also used the battery to power the second pump when I had a guy working with me so - overall 12 month is god enough for a 50 quid battery : )   

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The 110 amp battery on my van lasted over 3 years with 2 operators. It still had a daily working life but it was becoming boarderline so got replaced. My current battery is an Oldham Leisure battery and that's 2 years old. What I like about that battery is that I can top up the cells with water although I've not needed to so far.

Dropping to voltage that low will have killed the battery tbh.

To be honest i use a van battery that i had spare after getting a higher cranking one when my van was hard to start due to pressure loss before i changed the sticking injectors

No issues and use it for 4 solid days before changing to my second spare one and charging the first

Been using those 2 for 6 months with no issues

75 quid for a new one even every 6 months would still be peanuts in the grand scheme of things considering what it earns me

I never look what voltage it is etc as i smoked my controller due to schoolboy error the other month re wiring my system

I just use a pwm and 5.2l surflow and don't think about it

Iurie said:

I bought a 110 AH PowerLine XV31MF battery last July and initially I could work two full days  without charging it . The battery was charged every evening using a smart battery charger however these days it doesn't last more then 4 hours to get it flat.. 

I was thinking to add some pure water in the cells but is a sealed battery .. anyway -  shall I get another one or it can be reconditioned somehow ? 

thanks very much

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Did you keep the receipt as it should last at least 2 years.

Ideally it's best if the battery never gets below 50% charge (12.4v) and is charged asap after. With a 110ah Leisure battery you shouldn't ever get below that in a day. My 5.2l 100psi Shurflo pumps draw less than 3a each under load of 100m hose. So that's 6a for two pumps which after 8hrs constant use should be less than half the capacity of a 110ah battery. If it's been ruined that quickly and you've been charging it properly you might have a short somewhere or pump may be slightly burned out.

bought a new one recently  im charging it every evening and hopefully will last longer than the other one  

Wack a split relay in van.. only £30 charge your battery when you are driving


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